• Overview
• Objectives
• Profiles
• Learning Experience
• Faculty
• Dates & Fees

Innovation as a competitive advantage

With rising use of global outsourcing, offshoring, international distribution networks and internet channels, it is clear that low labour costs and market access are no longer competitive differentiators. More and more companies are looking to designing and developing new products and services as a crucial source of competitive advantage, differentiation, growth and profitability. 

Strategic R&D Management is about how organisations make product innovation happen. It helps senior managers engage in and support product innovation in a way that drives – rather than dissipates – their business strategy. You will learn how to manage product innovation as a strategic business process that cuts across and involves multiple functions. By using a framework for R&D, you will be able to deliver more and better product innovation to your company. For over 15 years, the Strategic R&D Management programme has been constantly evolving, consistently remaining at the forefront of product development business concern.

Key benefits

• View R&D from a strategic perspective rather than a collection of development projects
• Build tools to translate business strategy into a portfolio of innovation initiatives, and to measure performance of uncertain and longterm innovation
• Build processes and structures to enhance the capability of your organisation to generate creative ideas for different purposes and with different degrees of novelty

A view from INSEAD on:

• Strategic Research and Development

Strategic R&D Management, an INSEAD/Wharton alliance programme, seeks to equip participants with skills and tools for creating added value through creativity and innovation in their organisations. 

Using case studies, experiential exercises, group work, and lectures, the programme examines the business outcome of R&D and includes the following components:

• Organisational innovativeness and idea creation
• Innovation strategy and how it is executed by the new product portfolio
• Managing capacity: prioritising the new product portfolio in the R&D pipeline
• Measuring project performance and overall innovation performance
• Managing a portfolio of processes for different types of innovations (from incremental to radical)
• Co-ordination and effective organisational structures for product innovation
• Architectures, platforms and cost management in R&D
• R&D partnerships and alliances: strategies and processes
• Transferring knowledge
• Innovation culture and managing professionals

Strategic R&D Management brings together an experienced group of executives from a great diversity of industries and countries. It is designed specifically for senior managers involved in product innovation – either directly or because this is a major focus of their organisation.

These executives may be moving from a top specialised function into a more generalist role, or indeed may be general managers whose job now entails a closer involvement in product innovation. Past participants have included programme managers of major research initiatives, directors of labs and vice presidents of R&D, senior managers with a heavy stake in the successful running of their company’s R&D effort, as well as executives from engineering, marketing, finance, manufacturing, sales, or service.

A careful admissions process seeks to align the expectations and needs of executives with the experience they can bring to the group.

"I particularly appreciated the cases studied and the interactions between the professors and all the participants. The professors were excellent and they treated a large variety of topics during this one week programme. They provide useful tools to efficiently manage R&D."

Director Network Architecture,
Alcatel Bell
Belgium 

"It has invigorated me, refreshed my brain and encourage my spirit to drive my organisation to the top. Enjoyable experience!"

Chief Operating and Corporate Development Officer
Telvent
Spain
 

"The programme opens new perspectives, new views on R&D management. The exercises in small groups were very helpful to understand and to apply the concepts." 

Senior R&D Project Manager
Angiomed C.R. Bard
Germany

Great minds don’t think alike

INSEAD’s professors represent many cultures, disciplines, and perspectives. This programme is led by an international team of leading faculty in product innovation management. Participants benefit from the faculty’s deep knowledge of strategic R&D management in diverse industries and countries as well as from their first-hand industry experience.*

	Jurgen Mihm Programme Director Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management Jürgen Mihm's research interests are concerned with all management aspects of large engineering projects. He holds a Doctorate in Technology Management from Wissenschaftliche Hochschule Koblenz (WHU) and a joint degree in business and electrical engineering (Dipl. Wirtsch. Ing.) from Technische Universität Darmstadt. Read more...
	Ludo Van der Heyden Professor of Technology and Operations Management The Mubadala Chaired Professor in Corporate Governance and Strategy Academic Director, INSEAD Corporate Governance Initiative		Mark Mortensen Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour
	Stylianos Kavadias Professor of Operations Management, Cambridge University

*programme faculty may change

Dates & Fees

This programme is eligible for the INSEAD Executive Certificate in Global Management.

Participants are required to attend a programme introduction and opening dinner prior to the first day of formal instruction.

Please click here for more information about the terms and conditions.

For full details on how to apply, accommodation, and cancellation conditions please visit the Practical Information page

* Fee subject to change. For programmes delivered in France, VAT (19.6%) to be added for companies based in France, or for European companies where no VAT number is supplied. For programmes delivered in Singapore, GST (7%) to be added for Singapore-registered companies.